JON RYAN CHARITY FESTIVITIES UNDERWAY

As the Roughriders continue preparations for Sunday’s CFL season-opening game against Hamilton, across town Super Bowl champion Jon Ryan of the Seattle Seahawks kicked off his 2014 charity events with a Seahawks 12th Man flag-raising ceremony at the Regina Ramada Plaza Wednesday morning.  It’s the second year Jon has staged charitable events in his hometown of Regina.  Here are some photos:

This is the second year Jon has hosted the Jon Ryan Charity Golf Classic at the Wascana Golf & Country Club but it’s the first year of the business luncheon which was held at the Regina Ramada.   For the first time ever Jon delivered a keynote address to the soldout crowd and the 20-minute motivational speech was a smashing success.  Each of the 280 patrons in attendance received a personally autographed Jon Ryan 8×10 photo…

CFL receiving king Geroy Simon spoke on behalf of the TessCo Huddle Up organization and explained how the foundation collected 12,000 coats on one day for the under-privileged kids of Regina this winter…

Jon’s girlfriend, comedienne Sarah Colonna of E! TV’s Chelsea Lately show, introduced Jon on stage.  She is a New York Times best-selling author and is on the road 39 weeks out of the year doing stand-up comedy…

The Q & A session with Jon Ryan provided plenty of laughs as we took questions from the crowd.  What an honour it is to have played a role on Wednesday..

620 CKRM’s SportsCage was broadcast live from the Ramada Wednesday afternoon and it was a true display of the Family of Football.  Co-host Luc Mullinder was reunited with Mondray Gee, the Seahawks Strength & Conditioning Coach.  Gee was an under-graduate athletic therapist with Luc’s Michigan State Spartans and the two hadn’t seen each other in 15 years…

The CKRM table at the luncheon.  From left: Landon Van Everdink, Gloria Evans, J.J. Elliott, Darrell Gibson, Chad Bobryk, Karen Broderick and Kenda Ashton…

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I should’ve been rolling a tape on Jon Ryan’s speech but I honestly didn’t expect it to be that funny.  Here are some quotes and notes from Jon:

– Jon’s father Bob, who passed away from cancer a few years ago, told him “If you’re good enough, they’ll find you”.  He was correct.  Jon went from punting and receiving for the Sheldon Spartans to being a 3rd round pick of Brendan Taman’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2004 and two years later he signed with the Green Bay Packers.

– “I feel like I’ve taken so much from this city.  There are a literally a thousand people I need to thank including all those volunteer coaches, refs, scorekeepers from Regina Touch to RMF and on and on.  I can’t possibly pay everyone back but these events are my way of saying thanks.”

– Jon referred to Lambeau Field in Green Bay as a “museum of football” but said if you’re going to attend an NFL game, it has to be at Century Link Field in Seattle.

– Ryan said NFL players are only allotted two tickets per home game and the biggest headache in his life is accommodating Regina folk for tickets to Seahawks games.

– The Seahawks’ Super Bowl ring ceremony was Thursday evening in Seattle and once he got back to Regina, he compared that ring with his provincial high school football ring from Sheldon.  “They each have the same amount of stories behind them, but one’s just a little more expensive!”

– Regarding Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, “Once you get past his criminal background, he’s a really good guy!”

– Regarding legendary NFL quarterback Brett Favre, “Once he got out of rehab for a third time, he really grew up!  My locker was right beside his.”

– Regarding his girlfriend Sarah Colonna, “I was up late one night watching her show and I said, ‘I’m going to date her.  Then, like any guy would, I stalked her on Twitter”.

– Regarding last year’s Super Bowl: “I came out early for the second half and we were up 22 points.  The announcer said no one has ever come back from being 10 or more points down.  When Percy Harvin returned the first kick of the second half to the house, I thought ‘We’re going to win this thing”.

– Regarding the celebration on-field afterwards: “I hugged my Mom and then I lost it.  All of the hard work, and the journey, eating $0.99 tacos and living in a Motel 6 in Phoenix without a job, it all came flooding back at once.”

– “My best memory of Lambeau Field was having Paul Hill fly my Dad, who was dying of cancer, to Green Bay to watch me play for the one and only time.  He was in the tunnel and he told Brett Favre, ‘I hope you don’t make Jon have to punt today’.  That’s the kind of team guy he was.  He’d rather we won by a bunch rather than me having to punt a bunch of times.”

– “I’m going into my 11th season in the NFL.  I have no idea how this wild ride is going to end.  I have no clue.  But I want it to go on for as long as it can.”